If You're A Loony And You Know It, Clap Your Hands!

Fig. 1. William Hogarth - The Interior of Bedlam (from A Rake's Progress), 1763

MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.

Ambrose Bierce

Your Ears Will Orgasm #51: Peter Maxwell Davies - Eight Songs for a Mad King (MixPod Player)

If You Stab Us, Do We Not Burst Into Mournful Arias?

Fig. 1. Palace Garnier (still known to many as the Paris Opera), 1875


'Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive.'

Moliere

* 'Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.' (Robert Burns)

Your Ears Will Orgasm #49: Peter Maxwell Davies - Miss Donnithorne's Maggot (MixPod Player)